1) Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a protective packaging kit for hypodermic needles that includes a rigid crush resistant plastic tube with quickly removable end caps. The plastic tube protects against breakage during field deployment of the needles in soft cases and the end caps provide for rapid needle removal from the protective tube.
2) Description of Related Art
Combat operations by U.S. Armed Forces in various theaters around the world have lead to the establishment of mission specific combat casualty care requirements for the Department of Defense. These requirements necessitate the need to implement new and innovative casualty response training and durable precision equipment to aggressively decrease preventable combat deaths at the point of wounding in the field.
The hard lessons learned over centuries of battlefield healthcare have resulted in military guidelines for trauma management, which have mirrored tactics used in the civilian sector for many years. However, a new strategy has emerged due in large part to the life saving efforts of those in Special Operations Command, which his now being referred to as Tactical Combat Casualty Care (TCCC).
TCCC launched a total reassessment of practices under the previously established military guidelines for battlefield healthcare with the goal of decreasing preventable combat deaths at the point of wounding. Instead of the civilian-based approaches of the past, integrated strategies specific to combat realties are being required. For instance, Special Forces medics generally carry “soft” packpack type first aid kits made of durable cloth like materials that contain various essential items for dealing with life threatening wounds. These soft kits are typically subject to severe impacts associated with the rigors of warfare where the individual carrying the soft kit is often running up against walls, diving on the ground, and generally engaging in rigorous physical activity that takes a toll on the items in the kit.
Among the various items included in these soft first aid kits are decompression hypodermic needles intended for use in the management of combat casualties who present signs and symptoms of tension pneumothorax. Preliminary research data from the U.S. Arm Institute of Surgical Research has shown that needle decompression with a 14-gauge needle is as successful as a chest tube, used in the civilian sector, in relieving a tension pneumothorax and that the therapeutic benefit persists for at least four hours.
In the civilian market, such 14-gauge needles come packaged in a flexible sterile paper and plastic wrapper that does nothing to protect the needle inside except to keep it sterile. Also, because the wrappers all look the same, there is no quick way to identify different gauge needles from each other at a glance when lumped together in a first aid kit. Because the needles are usually safely contained in an ambulance, large hard shelled case, or on the shelf of a hospital supply closet, in the civilian sector this are simply not the same concerns for durability that require a protective package for the needle. Further, in civilian applications, space is often not a concern unlike in the military environment where space in the first aid kit is at a premium and a plethora of backup needles is simply not practical. Accordingly, the inclusion of decompression needles of various gauges packaged in the sterile wrapper for use in the first aid kits of military field medics resulted in broken needles due to the impacts sustained by the soft first aid kits and unnecessary delay in identifying the proper needle under combat conditions. Thus, there is a substantial need to provide a protective packaging for the decompression needles that is lightweight, extremely durable, can be operated quickly to remove the needle, and which provides a simple means of quickly identifying the proper needle.
The prior art on record at the U.S. Patent Office that discloses packaging for needles is directed to the civilian market and there are no references that deal with the concerns expressed above that are unique to the military market. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 6,305,541 (Tanner et al.) shows a combination package and needle hub assembly. An assembly of individually packaged cartridge assembles are held together in a shrink wrap, making them difficult to separate quickly. There is no discussion of indicating different needle types within the package, and the packaging is not indicated to have any particular durability for the purposes discussed above. Further, there is no teaching that the needles can be quickly removed from the containers, particularly in view of the shrink wrap.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,114,455 (Claisse et al.) show a sealed hypodermic needle package that is intended to provide sterility, but not durability. Such thin plastic tubes are easily bent and there is no discussion of the tubes have a rigid nature that would prevent damage to the needle from severe impacts.
U.S. Pat. No. 1,667,248 (Eisele) shows a tubular glass case for a thermometer. These type of enclosures are useful for simple storage in a home or hospital environment, but would be completely impractical for the military application requirements of TCCC as the glass tubing would shatter easily.
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide a protective packaging kit for decompression needles that meets the operational and durability standards of TCCC.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide a protective needle packaging kit that is lightweight to minimize added weight to the first aid kits carried by soldiers in the field.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide a protective needle packaging kit that can be operated quickly to remove the needle.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide a protective needle packaging kit that provides a simple means of quickly identifying different needle types contained in the protective packaging.